Oh jive/quickstep week – a week that usually has the potential to make me cringe and shake my head. Unfortunately, this season was no different :-( The lines have been drawn, and the judges are making some pretty clear distinctions in their scoring – at the top we have the “chosen ones” who can do no wrong in the judges’ eyes (Gilles & Peta, Sabrina & Louis), then the good dancers that the judges seem to critique/score more harshly to give the impression of “wanting them to improve” (Shawn & Derek, Apolo & Karina, Melissa & Tony), the mediocre-to-good dancers that the judges seem reluctant to really critique/score harshly (Kelly & Val, Emmitt & Cheryl, Helio & Chelsie), the mediocre-to-bad dancers that don’t really get love from the judges but still get the votes to stay (Joey & Kym, Kirstie & Maks, Bristol & Mark)…and then you have Drew, whom I’m almost convinced the judges/TPTB don’t really give a rat’s ass whether he stays or goes. All in all, this illustrious all-star season is beginning to leave a bad taste in my mouth – and we’ve still got 8 more weeks to go after tomorrow! And please tell me I’m not the only one that’s getting sick of seeing that damn 7.5 paddle…

1.) Gilles & Peta - As great of a dancer as Gilles may be, I just find myself getting rubbed the wrong way by some of his behavior so far this season – and I’m beginning to feel the same about Peta, too. He complains about how injured he is and how much pain he’s in all week, then performs one of the most intense & forceful jives I’ve ever seen on the show – and then he has this bizarre, kinda choked-up “moment” up in the celebraquarium that just kinda left me going “Huh?” Not gonna lie – it was bordering on Jaleel levels of awkwardness. While I do think he did a really good jive (notice I didn’t say “great”), I think Gilles may have caught a bit of the Sabrina Bug this week – every kick & flick just felt so HARD and deliberate. And I’m not sure if it was just the fringe on her costume or what, but Peta seemed to be dancing extra forcefully, too – and as trivial as this may seem, I seriously hope the makeup team dials back the eyeliner next week, because it gives Peta this very harsh, glaring look when she’s not smiling widely. Anywho, these two seem like they’ve got several weeks of safety ahead of them, with the level of favoritism they seem to be getting from the judges & TPTB. I guess I just hope Gilles can have some sort of breakthrough and regain some of the charm that made him so endearing in season 8…

2.) Shawn & Derek – This jive was pretty much everything I expected – cute, high-energy, clean, & entertaining. Even though I had already gotten a bit of a heads-up that Shawn had much better endurance than Derek, I was still kinda impressed by how…not winded she was afterward. Just sort of a “Meh…ain’t no thang!” look on her face :-P Now while I enjoyed the Hairspray theme and a lot of the choreography that went with it, I have to say – I found myself wanting a little more basic, in-hold jive content, a little bit less of the 60’s-y themed open choreography. And I wonder if this may be a problem with pretty much everyone who goes for a themed routine this season – everyone feels so compelled to keep the bar high that they feel the need to throw in a lot of unique choreography. I guess that’s one way in which I agreed with Len a bit in his critique – everything in this routine was satisfactory, but I don’t know that any of it really exceeded my expectations. Guess I’m just hoping to be blown away during iconic dances week next week, since the couples have been instructed to “push the envelope”. I just hope Derek can “push the envelope” while still including a lot of basic choreography.

3.) Sabrina & Louis – In quite possibly the biggest judging gaffe of the night, Gilles & Peta’s biggest competition for “most off-putting” couple this season managed to walk away with the high score after doing a quickstep that, while good, left me confused. I will give Sabrina credit for calming down quite a bit this week – there wasn’t nearly as much overdancing this time. But I did notice a couple instances where she seemed to fight the urge to really hit things hard, and a couple flicks seemed to come out a bit harder than they probably should have. My other big complaint? I felt like they stopped every 5 seconds for Sabrina to pose in a picture line!!! Talk about disrupting the flow of a dance – I liked what she did in-hold and she did have great posture, but it just felt so disjointed because Louis seemed to be throwing her into an oversway every other measure. For that reason, I think she was grossly overscored – considering that Apolo had, IMO, much more difficult content, which he executed with far more finesse than Sabrina did her content. And WTF was up with that beginning sequence when they came running in??? If it was accidental, they must really be in la-la land; if it was intentional, WTF?! But as I saw many of you saying, I feel like the fix is in – somebody with influence really wants Sabrina to stick around. Which makes me wonder if maybe Sabrina isn’t exactly “killing it” in the votes department. But I think time will tell, as we whittle down the weaker dancers… Read more..

Ultrasound sales specialist by day, semi-knowledgeable DWTS fan by night...with a smattering of hair & makeup enthusiast, occasional model, and crazy cat lady peppered in to make things REALLY interesting ;-) I might pee my pants in happiness if Donnie Wahlberg ever does DWTS - or if they ever use "Sunglasses at Night" as a paso doble. Check out some of my other work at pureamericasgottalent.com!

Kym Johnson has written a new blog at People.com. She first talks of Pamela Anderson and how she was sad to see her go first. Then she talks of rehearsals and gives us a small preview for tonight’s new dance with partner Joey Fatone. Below is more….

We next have our quickstep and Joey and I have decided to tell a story with our dance.

Joey is such a performer and we came up with this really cool idea to do a silent film type of thing. We’re having a lot of fun in rehearsals. We really want to do a good job. If you have one bad week this season, you could be gone. Every week counts.

It’s a really nice atmosphere here. It’s a really fun season. I think that’s why I want to do so well. I don’t want it to end. Joey and I are great friends and I love everyone here at the studio. It’s such a great energy, even in rehearsals.

Joey is buckling down. He’s putting a lot of effort into his footwork. He’s been focusing more. He still goes into other peoples’ rehearsal rooms, but I think that’s his tactic. He’ll go and distract them, so I don’t mind when he does that.

I'm a fashion and music fan....and I have always loved dancing too of any kind. Dancing With The Stars seems to have this way of bringing all of those things together. One of my favorite dancing quotes at the moment: "No matter what, nobody can take away the dance you've already had...." ~Gleb Savchenko . For fun music and dance mixes, visit WilUnleashed Soundcloud.

I'm a fashion and music fan....and I have always loved dancing too of any kind. Dancing With The Stars seems to have this way of bringing all of those things together. One of my favorite dancing quotes at the moment: "No matter what, nobody can take away the dance you've already had...." ~Gleb Savchenko . For fun music and dance mixes, visit WilUnleashed Soundcloud.

Helio Castroneves tells Celebuzz that his partner Chelsie Hightower is “amazing”, but, shes “pushing harder” and even harder than his first Dancing With The Stars partner Julianne Hough. They talk a little on their Jive, saying “it’s fast, crazy, and it’s fun too.” Below is lots more with these too. They are so cute!

I'm a fashion and music fan....and I have always loved dancing too of any kind. Dancing With The Stars seems to have this way of bringing all of those things together. One of my favorite dancing quotes at the moment: "No matter what, nobody can take away the dance you've already had...." ~Gleb Savchenko . For fun music and dance mixes, visit WilUnleashed Soundcloud.

From Heidi’s post here is how the couples will stack up in accordance to past data:

As expected only Peta Murgatroyd and Valentin Chmerkovskiy have yet to work on their respective dance this early in the season. (Peta has worked on the Jive with Donald Driver in Week 8, but for purposes of calculating the prediction scores I chose not to use scores from later in the season when predicting for earlier in the season)

Much like last week, half of the celebrities have danced the same dance in the same week… it will be interesting to see how the scores compare to tonight’s scores on those cases.Read more..

My life can be summed up in the following two quotes: 1) "I am married to engineering and am its faithful wife by day, but at night my wanderlust takes hold and the arts becomes my jealous paramour." and... 2) "Engineering is my safety net. Writing is my passion. Acting is my escape when the other two become too much." So where does dancing fit in? Pretty much anywhere at this point... =)

Louis Van Amstel blogs at ABC about week 2 of Dancing With The Stars. He gives us a run down for the Jive and the Quickstep and their rules. He’s excited for he and Sabrina’s Quickstep this week too and thinks this might be a great dance for her versus the Latin dances…

This week it will be interesting to see how the celebs handle a different dance of the opposite style. Couples that danced the Cha Cha last week will do the Quickstep and couples that danced the Foxtrot will do the Jive this week. Now you can judge how well-rounded the couples are when it comes to faster dances versus slower dances. This week both the Jive and Quickstep are the fastest dances of the ballroom or Latin dances.

The Jive doesn’t really have rules except for the “No Lift” policy. The Quickstep is much stricter. Besides the “No Lift” policy, couples only have 10 seconds in the beginning and at the end to play around and have side-by-side choreography. The remainder has to be in closed hold, which means in a 1 minute and 5 second routine, 45 seconds have to be in closed hold. Some pros take liberties and break those rules, others don’t. The closed hold in a regular ballroom competition is very clear. You have to be in the same frame and always be in contact, but on the “DWTS” floor the closed hold could be up for interpretation.

(I’ve wonder if you guys at home ever understood this rule with the Quickstep. I remember in past seasons when I wrote this blog I timed some of the Quickstep openings being over 20 seconds. Many times this happens because it’s easier not to be in closed hold. It’s also harder to be expressive when you’re in one position for most of the song. Yes, I’ll say it – it can be boring – but a rule is a rule.)

I’m so excited about our Quickstep this week. At first glance I thought Sabrina would be way better at the Latin dances because she’s such a firecracker with such a bubbly personality, but I was so wrong. I’ll let you decided for yourself what you think about our Quickstep.

Great blog. Be sure you read more at ABC because Louis writes about the order of the dances he watched last night as well.

I'm a fashion and music fan....and I have always loved dancing too of any kind. Dancing With The Stars seems to have this way of bringing all of those things together. One of my favorite dancing quotes at the moment: "No matter what, nobody can take away the dance you've already had...." ~Gleb Savchenko . For fun music and dance mixes, visit WilUnleashed Soundcloud.

Let’s see what Tony Dovolani and Melissa Rycroft have to say about Dancing With The Stars with Celebuzz. Yes, a new rehearsal interview and how the duo are feeling going into week two! Melissa says Tony is more calm with his teaching than when they first danced. Tony says Melissa used to be like a mosquito and now she pays attention more. They also talk of their competitors. Take note of what Tony says at the end about Gilles and how he wishes he’d relax more and have fun (interesting, the same things many of us have been noticing).

I'm a fashion and music fan....and I have always loved dancing too of any kind. Dancing With The Stars seems to have this way of bringing all of those things together. One of my favorite dancing quotes at the moment: "No matter what, nobody can take away the dance you've already had...." ~Gleb Savchenko . For fun music and dance mixes, visit WilUnleashed Soundcloud.

Drew Lachey writes of how this past week getting ready for week 2 of Dancing With The Stars has been an “eventful – and stressful – week, to say the least”. He’s not ready to go home and he and Anna have “turned it up a notch”. Below is more on their Jive tonight “cue the Rocky music”.

After finding ourselves in the bottom two, and facing elimination, Anna and I have turned things up a notch. We have always worked hard, but there has been a new sense of focus and determination (cue the Rocky music). This is a new week with a new dance, and it is going to be a new outcome … hopefully.

Our dance this week is the jive – a fast, rhythmic, challenging dance that takes a lot of stamina. I am very excited about this because these are the kinds of dances that I feel I can do pretty well. I really like our music, but this ain’t your grandmama’s jive. Everything about it is a little rough around the edges. Just the way I like it.

The energy around the rehearsal studio is still fun, but you can tell that all of the couples are really focused on this week. Last week was a wake-up call that anybody could go home at any time.

I can only speak for myself, but I am nowhere close to being ready to leave the ballroom. This show is a lot of fun, and I love dancing with Anna. Hopefully we’ll be able to impress the judges and the audience with our jive and remember everybody: vote, vote, vote.

I'm a fashion and music fan....and I have always loved dancing too of any kind. Dancing With The Stars seems to have this way of bringing all of those things together. One of my favorite dancing quotes at the moment: "No matter what, nobody can take away the dance you've already had...." ~Gleb Savchenko . For fun music and dance mixes, visit WilUnleashed Soundcloud.

Gearing up for Week 2’s dancing, some of the couples of Dancing With The Stars were interviewed on Good Morning America today. They talk on preparing for week 2’s dances on Dancing With The Stars. They also discuss of who is the “sexiest male contestant” and pose some sexy moves. I can’t embed the video since it gives some script errors at the site lately, but, you can watch it here. Too fun!

So, which male celeb this season do you think is the most “sexy” on Dancing With The Stars? That would be Apolo Ohno for me!! :D

I'm a fashion and music fan....and I have always loved dancing too of any kind. Dancing With The Stars seems to have this way of bringing all of those things together. One of my favorite dancing quotes at the moment: "No matter what, nobody can take away the dance you've already had...." ~Gleb Savchenko . For fun music and dance mixes, visit WilUnleashed Soundcloud.

“As we [say] in football, that was Tuesday. Today is Thursday. That’s behind us,” said Smith, who was inducted in the NFL Hall of Fame in 2010. “What’s in front of us is the quickstep.”

Finally …a new rehearsal interview! This one with ET Online is with Dancing With The Stars contenders Cheryl Burke and Emmitt Smith!! Check out their Quickstep in the very beginning. They also talk of their scores last week, but, now they are starting over. I love his fighting, charming spirit. Lots more below or at the link (if the video below doesn’t work).

I'm a fashion and music fan....and I have always loved dancing too of any kind. Dancing With The Stars seems to have this way of bringing all of those things together. One of my favorite dancing quotes at the moment: "No matter what, nobody can take away the dance you've already had...." ~Gleb Savchenko . For fun music and dance mixes, visit WilUnleashed Soundcloud.